Gene Wolfe - Return to the Whorl

"Correct. Though I would try to have his sight restored in any case, just as you yourself are making a praiseworthy effort to restore Maytera's."

"You even sound like yourself, Patera." He held up his lantern, letting its glow fill the whole sad, empty room. "It's uncanny, hearing your voice from Pig's lips and larynx. The voice is surely much more a function of the spirit than I ever realized. Chenille must have sounded very different indeed when she was possessed by Kypris."

"She did. You said it wasn't merely my coming here, Horn. What was it?"

He sighed. "I wish I'd known when Nettle and I wrote our book. I would have emphasized the changes in voice more. If I didn't have a light, I'd be ready to swear Patera Silk was standing before me in person."

"Standing before you and quizzing you, Horn. How did you know? I won't make you reply, though I probably could. I'll be grateful for an answer, just the same."

"I wish I had a good one. Last night I dreamed that Pig took off his bandage; and when he did, his face was yours. So I must have sensed something. We call him Pig, and talk about him as if that were really his name; but it's just a name of the Vironese type that he chose for himself yesterday."

"I remember."

"You would of course. Tonight Hound said our names were linked-Hound and Horn, like a hunting inn. That started me thinking about Pig's name, because I feel closer to Pig than to Hound, though Hound has been so kind to us, and I recalled the old saying, that you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. A silk purse generally means a purse made of silk, but it could also be purse to contain Silk."

Pig chuckled.

"Pig, or you in Pig, might have thought it amusing to give the proverb the lie-so it seemed to me. Then too, men rarely like the men they fear; but Hound likes Pig and fears him, too. You were the only man I'd known who had that kind of unconscious charm; but Pig has it. And, as you say, Pig had sought out this room, which used to be Hyacinth's, and was enraged at the prospect of being disturbed here."

"It was Pig who was angry," Pig said.

"I know. In one sense you're Silk-but ultimately you're really Pig, exactly as you appear to be. A Pig to whom certain new instructions have been given."

"What's that yer said, bucky?"

"I said that I had no wish to disturb your privacy, that I was extremely grateful to you for permitting me to spend even a few minutes in this room, and that I will return to Hound now and leave you to your thoughts."

"Never had none, bucky." Pig chuckled again. "Gae wi' yer, h'if yer dinna h'object ter me company."

"I'd be delighted to have it, and perhaps we can find some firewood. Do you think that might be possible?" He gasped.

"What yer catch yer breath like that fer, bucky?"

"This room has several windows. No doubt you discovered them for yourself."

"Did he? He did. Seadh."

"Well, the clouds parted just then-just as I finished speakingand I saw a flash of skylight. It means that the sun is burning again. When we leave, it will be by daylight. I-I realize it makes no difference to you, Pig, but it will make an enormous difference to Hound and me, and even to the donkeys, I imagine."

"Huh! Want h'it ter make a difference ter me, bucky. Gang ter help me find een, hain't yer?"

He said, "I will do everything in my power, Pig. You have my solemn promise."

The doorway was much too small for them to leave arm in arm, though both would have liked to. As it was he hung back, letting Pig kneel to crawl through before him. For an instant then it almost seemed to him that the bare floor and mildewing walls had been swept aside and he saw again the luxury and splendor that had been: the rich, figured carpet, the pictured women of pink and gold, and the huge bed of scented wood with its black and crimson sheets. Wine and chocolate perfumed the air, and glowing lights clearer than the one he held swarmed over the ceiling, their refulgence held in check by the discretion of the murmuring couple in the bed.

Then Pig's boots were through the doorway, leaving behind them only silence, ruin, and himself. Sighing, he too went out, pursued by the mockery of Hyacinth's soundless laughter.

It would be impossible for me to write down everything that has occurred since I last wrote. When I was back on the Whorl, and Silk spoke to me through my friend Pig, I was eager to hear all that had befallen him since we had gone to Mainframe. He never complied, although I was permitted a few glimpses; and now I understand why he did not. There are things that would be so long in the telling that the Whorl might go before any account was well begun. This is like that, but I will do what I can.

Before I start, I should say that we are very comfortably situated now in the house that was Judge Hamer's. At present it belongs to me, having been given to me by the town. Before we leave I hope to sell it; Nettle and I will need money, Hide and Vadsig want to build a house as well as a boat, and it is likely Hoof will marry before long. I have noticed that when one twin does something the other is not far behind.

Speaking of Vadsig, I should say that before my trial I questioned her at length, having observed at the hearing that she was possessed. I supposed-hoped, I should say-that Jahlee was her possessor. In that I was disappointed.

"Who are you? I know you're not really Vadsig. If you want to make us think you are, you must learn to talk as she does."

She gave me the defiant glance I had seen earlier when she had described her quarrel with "Cook." "We came to help. You should thank us."

"I certainly need help. Thank you very much."

"That's better." She smiled.

"You speak of yourselves as we. How many of you are there?"

She giggled. "What does it matter?"

Hide said, "So I can tell when you're all gone. I want Vadsig back."

"She's still here." Her voice changed tone. "We'll have to go soon. Onorifica will come in and wake me up." A return to the previous tone. (I will not continue to mark these changes; they were too frequent.) "That's the good thing about this. I can eat."

To entertain them I said, "You're not Mucor in that case. I thought you might be; but Mucor would be alone, I believe."

Vadsig giggled again.

Hide said, "We don't think it's funny, do we Father? Who's Onorifica? Was that the girl who thought you could make your stick talk?"

"He can!" More giggling from Vadsig.

"She was a servant at General Inclito's," I told Hide, "so Vadsig's possessors are Inclito's daughter Mora-you remember her, I'm sure-and her friend Fava."

"You said Fava was dead. You said we sat on her grave that one time, and-"

Vadsig interrupted. "Well, I like that!"

I told her, "I hope you'll remember, Fava, that without me your body would have gone unburied, and would, I believe, have been devoured by wild animals that very night. I buried you alone, digging stony ground in the bitter cold. Would you have done as much for me?"

Vadsig was silent.

Hide said, "I still don't understand about Fava. Isn't she really dead?"

"Death isn't a hard and fast line like the edge of a table. It is a process, and it can be a long time before the dead person is entirely gone-indeed, it may not end in total dissolution at all. Fava and Mora were close, so it's not surprising that Fava figures in Mora's dreams. The surprising thing is that both figure in yours."

He gawked, and I laid a hand upon his shoulder. "The three whorls are stranger places than you can imagine, my son. As you mature you will come upon less and less of that strangeness if you stay close to home, honor no god much, and busy yourself with prosaic affairs. Then you can scoff at such things."